Deductive Inference

Abstract :

What is it for a thinker to be making a deductive inference ? I propose an account that involves recognition of a distinctive kind of content, and operation on it, that underlies all deductive inference. The account explains the epistemic status of deductive inference. I contrast the account with the proposals of John Broom and Gilbert Ryle. Deductive inference cannot on this account be reduced to conceptual role. Nor can it be explained in terms of natural deduction systems or axiomatic formulations of logical reasoning. Acceptance and use of logical principles can be explained using the apparatus proposed. The account can also be input into an account of the vexed notion of justification.

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Christopher Peacocke is a Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. He is invited by the Institut Jean-Nicod for a series of three lectures at the DEC in May 2021.